Speculations
by dontforget2live
Summary: "The first time Angel asked the question, Fang was caught by surprise. "Fang, do you love Max?" The second time Angel asked the question, Fang should have been surprised. Spoiler alert: he wasn't." Twice Angel asked Fang if he loved Max. Both times the answer was exactly the same, no matter how completely opposite the situation was. Twoshot. Fax. Rated T because reasons.
1. Before

**Hey, guys!**

**Yeah, yeah, I know I said that I was gonna do a The Mortal Instruments (or more specifically, a City Of Lost Souls) fanfic, and I _am _working on one, but I JUST GOT NEVERMORE FROM THE LIBRARY A FEW DAYS AGO AND AGH _FEELS_.**

**The book was great and all, but to be honest, I thought the ending was total and utter crap. Like (warning, there be spoilers ahead) they made it seem like all of the sudden Dylan doesn't like Max anymore and Fang/Max (aka Fax) happened and Dylan is all okay with it and everyone lives happily ever THE END.**

**Yeah. Forgive me if I come off as a bit annoyed, because I am. If there's anything I hate, it's crappy bailout endings.**

**Anyways, moving on. This is a two shot, being the before and after the breakup kinda thing. Because THERE IS _NEVER_ ENOUGH FAX ANGST. **

***ahem* Moving on.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride because if I did Fang would never have left, Dylan wouldn't exist, and neither would Maya/Max II.**

**:)**

* * *

The first time Angel asked the question, Fang was caught by surprise.

"Fang, do you love Max?"

One sentence. Five words. That was all it took to make Fang stop digging around in the fridge and freeze in his tracks.

In all reality, he really shouldn't have been. He hadn't _exactly _been subtle yesterday when he stormed into Agent Walker's house and to the room he shared with Iggy after seeing Max and that scum kiss, muttering things about dismemberment and torture and ways to make the death of a certain brown-haired boy by the name of Sam look like an accident.

Also, he didn't think that Angel being Angel and her having her ability to read his freaking _mind_ helped things. At _all_.

_Oh, the woes of being a teenage bird-kid, _Fang thought sarcastically. He turned around slowly to face the blonde she-devil, closing the fridge door as he went. "Um, jeez, Angel… why do you ask?" He responded quietly, scratching the back of his neck embarrassedly and trying his hardest not to blush.

Yes. He, Fang With-Have-No-Last-Name was trying not to blush. _Call the New York Times._

Angel crossed her arms and raised one blonde eyebrow at him. "You know why. You're very obvious, Fang," She retorted, glaring at him in a way no 7-year-old should be able to. "Now, do you love her or not?"

Jeez. There really was no privacy when you were a mutant bird-freak, was there?

The obvious and first answer that came to his mind was yes, and the weird urge to shout it out was so great that he had to clamp his jaw firmly shut to prevent the word from escaping his mouth.

_Yes._

Fang realized then that he actually loved Max. It did make sense, in a way. He'd known for a while that he was starting to develop feeling for the flock leader, but this was different. He shouldn't want to rip Sam into pieces for kissing her. He shouldn't not be able to feel anything even semi-romantic towards anyone else.

The truth of the matter was that Fang was in love with Maximum Ride- no, he wasn't just in love with her; he _loved _her, from her sun-streaked hair to her expressive eyes, to the way she could be so tough one minute and be caring and loving another, to the way she could be all serious and motherly one minute and then suddenly scream something like, "FOOD FIGHT!" It was extremely corny and so so _so _un-Fanglike, but he really actually loved almost every single part of her.

Well, maybe except the fact that she was making him into such a bloody sap.

_Whoops, _he thought dryly, a corner of his mouth turning up in a half smirk._ There goes my dignity,_

It was really scary, actually, how much he loved Max. Really scary how fast and hard he'd fallen for her, and especially scary how much he wanted to hurt anyone who hurt her or who would ultimately hurt her.

Talk about wanting to do a head-desk. _He loved his best friend_. The best friend who was so dead set against being in a relationship with him that he would probably die never having been with her.

Although, considering the life that they'd been living, that might not be too far away.

Fang watched as Angel's face softened, and then blossomed into a huge grin. Fang realized that, once again, the little bugger had read his mind.

Great.

Angel ran towards him, wrapping her thin arms around him and hugging his torso in a tight hug. "Oh, Fang!" She squealed happily, and he could feel her grinning into his chest.

Fang laughed as he returned the hug in one of his rare forms of affection that he (usually) only reserved for Angel, the annoying but lovable little not-sister that he almost (_almost)_ wished that he never had. "Don't go planning the wedding yet, Angel."

Angel giggled and pulled back slightly to look at him, still smiling happily. "You know, she loves you too, Fang," She said, her eyes piercing into his. "She really does."

Fang sighed, patting Angel's back between her wings almost absentmindedly. "Now if she'd only admit it…"

* * *

**And that concludes the 'before'. I'll upload the next, _much_ longer part within a week or two.**

**PEACESKIES (yes, I stole that from Damon Fizzy/Dee Fizzy. _COME AT ME BRO_.**

**Sorry... I'm hyper. :P**

**Anyways, please review? *gives puss-in-boots eyes***

**~Alex (aka dontforget2live:)**


	2. After

**A/N: Hey, guys! I finished this early, so here ya go! :)**

**to VampiresExplodeInLight: Thank you! I hope you like this one :)**

**to XstrictlyshadowsX: Thank you so much! There's not much Fax in this, just a heck of a lotta angst (LOL). But enjoy! :)**

**to ILOVEMEERKATS: Here you go :)**

**to MarieMMania: Thanks :) Here you go.**

* * *

The second time Angel asked the question, Fang should have been surprised.

(Spoiler alert: he wasn't.)

Sitting on the roof of the hotel they were staying at, mulling thing over in his head, Fang had _really _hoped for some time without his new flock or anyone else (or more specifically, some time without a certain person named Max…).

Max. If he thought that his heart broke when he had to leave, it was nothing to the proverbial knife that went through his chest every time he saw the pain that shattered in her eyes whenever she caught sight of him.

And it was especially nothing like what he felt when he realized that he, Fang With-No-Last-Name, had officially shattered Maximum Ride's heart into itty-bitty dust-sized pieces.

The battle inside his head was so fierce that he didn't even notice that someone was approaching until they spoke.

"Fang, do you still love Max?"

He almost fell off the ledge of the roof in his surprise. Righting himself quickly, he turned to face his old flock member almost wearily. "Hi, Angel."

Angel smiled at him sadly and sat down on the ledge beside him. "Hey, Fang," She responded quietly. Fang could hear the weariness in her voice, that I'm-just-so-_tired_ tone that nobody her age should have, and another jolt of pain seared through his chest. Angel turned to him, reading his thoughts, and smiled sadly at him again as she looked him in the eyes, blue on brown. "Do you still love Max?"

It was almost ironic that the first time Angel had asked this question, Fang had wanted to be with Max more than anything but couldn't, and now he'd been with Max, left her, unwillingly broke her heart, and he still wanted her more than anything.

Yeah, he knew he'd left for a reason (and a good one at that): to protect Max. But just one look from her and he wanted to drop onto his knees and beg for her to take him back.

Fang shifted on his perch on the edge of the roof to look Angel in the eyes. "It's complicated, Angel," He whispered, wrapping a protective arm around the little girl and absently wondering if she'd shake it off. "I don't think you'd understand."

Angel snuggled up to him just like she used to, when he was in the flock and all was normal (well, at least normal for them), and he was with Max and-

_Shut up, Fang!_

Angel gazed out at the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. "I'll try to understand," She returned before turning to look up at him innocently (as if _she _could ever be innocent) with what Max- _Max_- called her "Bambi eyes". Whatever _that_ meant, it was Angel's more moral way to make everyone do things for her. "Please?"

Fang sighed (he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately), giving in. "Yes, Angel. I love Max. I always have, to some extent, and I probably always will. But I had to leave; you know that."

Angel ripped away from him with surprising speed, glaring at him angrily. "No, you didn't!" She cried. Fang could see tears welling up in her eyes, and he instantly felt bad. She turned to look up at the stars, wiping her eyes with her sleeve fiercely. "Do you know what Max was like after you left? She read your letter and she _cried. _For almost an hour straight, she was sobbing. None of us could comfort her. We all cried, but she was the worst. Then she just asked us all to leave and crawled into bed. She didn't sleep; she just stared up at the ceiling and didn't move at all for almost 24 hours. That's a full _day_, Fang!"

To hear what his absence had done to Max broke Fang's heart. He couldn't look Angel in the eye, so instead he just buried his face in his hands. He wasn't crying- he thought he might to be too shocked to even be able to cry- but the guilt he felt was too overbearing to even face the world at the moment.

He had done this to Max. From the moment he first saw her again in that little restaurant he knew the truth- he had broken her heart. But he never knew about this- he never knew that he had broken her heart, he broke _her_. He shattered that girl, the girl that was always so tough, the girl who could get through _anything_.

Fang didn't think he could hate himself any more than he did.

"We had to call Dr Martinez to get her out of bed," Angel continued softly. "Even after that, when she got a bit better, we couldn't even mention your name without her getting that sad look in her eyes. She loved you, Fang. She still does, more than you'll ever know. And you broke her heart."

Slowly, Fang lifted his face up from his hands and hesitantly looked Angel in the eyes. To his intense surprise, she wasn't staring at him accusingly. If she had been, Fang didn't know if he could take that.

But instead, Angel was looking at him with only one sad, defeated question in her eyes.

_Why?_

"You don't understand, Angel," He whispered hoarsely, swallowing to try and dislodge the painful lump in his throat. "You don't know what it's like to love someone so much that you don't even care what happens to yourself, as long as the other person is okay. You _don't understand_. There's a _war _going on, Angel! Odds are I'm going to die, and if I'm with Max she'll just go down with me. You don't get it! No one does. I would _die _for Max. I would _sacrifice myself_ just so she could live. If I die- _when_ I die- it'll just be better this way. She'll get over me eventually. Besides, she-" Fang's voice cracked, and he couldn't stop the jealous tint that marred his next words, "She'll have Dylan."

Fang buried his face in his hands again, making his next words come out muffled. "You don't know how much it kills me to see her like this. You don't know how much it hurts me that we can't go back to what it used to be. You don't know how much I just wanna be with Max, how much I want to hold her, kiss her, touch her, _anything_. But I can't."

He could tell that Angel still heard him when she wrapped her small arms around him. He returned the hug sadly, resting his chin on the top of her head. "If you died, Fang, Max would be beside herself. She wouldn't be able to function properly. The odds are that we might_all _die, not just you. We're in equal danger with you or without you," She paused, turning her neck to look up at him. "Max loves you so much, Fang, and she always will."

Fang sighed, pressing a quick kiss to the top of Angel's head. "If only that could change everything…"

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**:(**

**Anyways, review please! :D**

**~Alex :)**


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